Why would anyone transition from being a lawyer to a law librarian?
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Anonymous
| Seems like a waste of a law degree and a huge income loss? |
Anonymous
| Same reason they transition to biz dev and training program leaders, they got tired of practicing. |
Anonymous
| My mom did this as a quasi-retirement job. She retired early once I had finished college (around 60) and we to get a masters in library science in order to become a law librarian. The idea was an easier, more sustainable job that she could do until 80 or so. |
Anonymous
|
Work life balance? It depends on the job but some law librarian jobs do pay well.
The law librarians at my organization have MLS degrees. It can be JD preferred. |
Anonymous
| I definitely see the appeal! Many people especially many lawyers don't love their career. Wanting better work life balance explains many transitions like biglaw to government or in-house or legal recruiting, etc. Many are fine with "huge income loss" if there is less stress, better schedule, etc. |
Anonymous
| lost license? |
Anonymous
eek |
Anonymous
| How is it a waste of the degree? Some of the questions/requests I've directed to our law librarian probably wouldn't be capably answered if he didn't have a law degree. |
Anonymous
Lower salary and less challenging? |
Anonymous
| It would be super interesting and you don't have to write or go to court. You're done at the end of the day. |
Anonymous
| No more billable hours, more predictable schedule - a guess. |
Anonymous
| I was a TA for the intro Library Science course when I was in grad school. The JDs who were getting law degrees to become law librarians were looking for reasonable hours and were willing to trade some salary. Law librarians make a lot more than many other kinds of librarians. |
Anonymous
I'm guessing OP is not a lawyer. Challenging is not always a good thing when it comes to day to day life balance. |
Anonymous
| I don’t mean to rude, but I’ve never met a male law librarian and assume it’s something women do when they want to scale back professionally and have a partner bringing in more money. |
Anonymous
| Can't deal with the day to day pressure in the practice of law. |